Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed - Theater of the Mind

Recently, someone posted about the need for maps and miniatures for CoC. The reaction was swift and divisive. A majority of the reaction was that CoC wasn't a combat game like D&D and that you should use your imagination and Theater of the Mind. For those not familiar with Theater of the Mind, the phrase came from the days of radio plays where people gathered around a radio and listened to dramas, just like people do today, to watch television shows (I know people don't do this anymore due to streaming and personal devices). Some people did admit to using battlemats and minis or doing a quick sketch and using dice to mark locations.

Battlemat and Minis for D&D

At first, I thought the question was from a GM used to a different style of game (most people thought it was a post by a D&D GM where battlemats and minis are prevalent), so my reaction was the following:

Generally, I run the game with Theater of the Mind. Most people know what a house looks like and such, and most of the time the PCs stay together, so there's not much argument about what's going on. A lot of the newer RPGs have Zones: close, near, medium, and far. They replace the finer granularity of battlemats and you can only move from one zone to another during a PC's action. Most combats in CoC are in close/near range, so the options are either to fight, shoot, or run away.

The only time I've had to use a map was running Horror on the Orient Express (HotOE), on a train with 15+ NPCs. I had a map of the train dining car and placed all the NPCs in various booths and tables and had the PCs mingle and chat with people. It's possible with Theater of the Mind, but a lot harder.

Sometimes when Players tell me they are confused, then I will pull out a piece of scratch paper and do a quick sketch. This sometimes happens in a larger space such as a cave complex with a large number of cultists or important objects such as statues, relics, prisoners, and someone being sacrificed.

I do have battlemats and minis, but I've rarely taken them out for CoC. I have played on roll20.net and mainly used the platform for sharing handouts and die rolling, and rarely for maps and the fog of war where you can slowly reveal parts of the map, but once in a while I will use it. I've used it for The Lightless Beacon as the PCs are exploring an unfamiliar lighthouse in darkness, so it adds to the paranoia.

Another person asked how do you know what's in the room?

If they are in a bedroom, I assume the standard bedroom stuff is present. If the creature comes out of a closet and attacks, I either ask for a Luck roll (lowest result gets attacked) or I've seen other GMs just pick the PC with the lowest Luck score. At that point, the PCs generally look for an improvised weapon. If a PC asks if there's a heavy table lamp in the room, then just ask them to make a Luck roll or just say, "Yes." If for something less likely like a silver candlestick (with the PC thinking that silver would have an adverse affect), you can require a higher level of success. For something extremely unlikely like a loaded rifle on the wall, just say, "No."

Then the poster said he never played D&D and was a Player.

I'm a visual person, so I visualize most stuff like a movie, so I have a strong sense of where things are. But I know that there are tactile people, smell people, audio people, etc. So, it can be a leap for someone new to Theater of the Mind as to how it works. It takes mental training to take an empty white room and populate it.

I bring in what I know about the 1920's, the surrounding context (a diner, a club, a house, a speakeasy), memories of various period movies, and internal logic and consistency -- and visually construct the location.

If you are in a living room or den, I will assume there are sofas, chairs, end tables, a fireplace, and if so, fireplace pokers and shovels, etc. A billiard room will have a pool table, pool sticks, maybe stuffed animal heads on the wall, a rifle or crossed swords and a shield as decoration. When you want as a Player to use one of those said props, you can ask the GM if that object exists in the setting. If it does, assume you can exploit it.

If you are in a room and you want to search it for clues, you tell the GM you are tossing the room for clues and whether you can roll a Spot Hidden. Or if you just want to glance around the room and see something out of place, you can ask the GM and he might ask you to roll a Spot Hidden.

For combat, there is no facing. Just assume there's room for 2 or 3 people to dog pile an opponent unless they're unusually large, but in that case running away is the better solution. In CoC 7th, combat is now a series of blows and struggle, not a single blow, so it's less tactical. You can just say, I'll move to point blank on the bad guy and shoot him. The GM will either let you do it or say, "Oh, there's 2 body guards in the way, you can't. You see the body guards move to intercept you, what do you want to do instead?" Sometimes in a fight, someone is already engaged and you can say, "I'll move up behind the bad guy and smack him with a vase." Generally, the GM with just say, "Because the bad guy is already engaged and outnumbered, roll Fight (Grapple) with a bonus die" which matches your narration. Or in some cases, you can say, "I duck behind a support pillar or sofa for cover." Just assume that type of feature is in the room. If you really can't, the GM will tell you, "Sorry, there's nothing like that in the room or it's too far away. Do you still want to run for cover, it'll take two rounds? Or do you want to just fall prone to the ground? Or do something else?" The key is dialog between the GM and Player, so there is a meeting of the minds as to what's in the room.

So, those are my thoughts on Theater of the Mind for CoC.